| Weekend
Edition
December 8 / 9, 2007
From
Border Bullies to Prosecutors
Seize
the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
By BRENDA
NORRELL
The
Gate, Tonoho O'Odham Nation (Arizona)
While
Homeland Security announced the forced occupation and takeover of
Lipan Apache lands in Texas for the border wall, I was at the Arizona
border once again being bullied by the US Border Patrol.
All
along the border, Homeland Security's Border Patrol is intimidating
and harassing the people who have lived here all their lives.
The
Tohono O'odham have lived here since time immemorial. Now their
land has been seized and taken over by the Border Patrol, the contractor
Boeing and the invading National Guardsmen, for construction of
the border wall. The graves of O'odham ancestors have been dug up,
according to the traditional O'odham now speaking out against the
militarization and abuse.
All
along the border, young people are intimidated and harassed constantly.
Tailgating police, excessive force by police and Nazi-style prosecutors
push young people into rage and jails.
At
the same time in Tucson, a judge has declared peace activities opposing
US torture in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, as a "danger
to the community" and jailed them.
The
United States government has become the terrorist it claims to oppose.
In
Texas, Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache/Jumano Apache, called for immediate
support, when Homeland Security announced the occupation of lands
where Apache land title holders are refusing to sign NSA waivers
for the border wall.
Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the United States will
seize private lands in south Texas for the border wall, using the
law of eminent domain.
Tamez
said, "We need your help on our continuing efforts to protect
and keep safe the elders of our struggle against U.S. tyranny."
Chertoff
announced plans to force occupation of South Texas families who
refuse to allow the government access to their lands.
Tamez
said, "'Refusers' such as the Lipan Apache Land Grant Women
Defense, led by my mother, Dr. Eloisa Garcia Tamez (Lipan Apache,
Basque-Apache), in the rancheria of El Calaboz, have frustrated
the NSA, Border Patrol and Army Corps of Engineers officials for
over two years, and increasingly in the last two months.
"Using
tactics such as public announcements over the news service, used
as intimidation and as psychological warfare -- NSA/Chertoff exploits
the press to prepare the nation to invade South Texas -- and indigenous
peoples--who are being 'architected as the perpetual enemies of
the United States.' This is an old story of genocidal tactics and
militarization.
"This
scenario played out before, in 19th century, in 20th century. And
now the 21st, my mother, the 'child of lightning ceremony', is fighting
for the vestiges of our traditional lands.
"My
mother, and the ancestors of 'the place where the Lipan pray', have
been critical to our land-based struggle, and they are leaders in
an Apache struggle in the Mexico-US International Boundary region.
Our elder voices direct us in a huge role that Apache people will
play in standing up against tyranny of the settler society. We cannot
do this without the support and the solidarity of our indigenous
sisters and brothers who are also at the forefront of the 21st century
battles for our rights as indigenous people with ancient footprints
on this land.
"My
mother, at this stage of our community-based struggle, indicates
that she is prepared to receive national and international support
for our small community on the peripheries of U.S. empire. She wrote
a comment on the page of this news story out of Houston, Texas.
"Today
we are submitting our comments to the Environmental Impact Statement
authorities, and parallel to that we are submitting an in depth
case study of our histories under U.S., Mexican, Spanish, Vatican
and corporate domination to the International Indian Treaty Council
shadow report to be submitted to the U.N. Convention on the Elimination
of Racism and Racial Discrimination in December," Tamez said.
Meanwhile
in Tucson, peace activists opposing US torture in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Guantanamo were declared a "danger to the community"
and jailed. They are the latest prisoners of conscience taking action
against the torture training at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona.
Earlier, Fort Huachuca was also the site of the originator of the
torture manuals used by the Schools of the Americas, leading to
the murder, rape, torture and disappearance of masses of Indigenous
Peoples in Central and South America in the 1980s and 1990s.
At
a detention hearing in federal court in Tucson, Betsy Lamb, a retired
Catholic lay leader, and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada were jailed
without bail until their trial, according to the support group "Torture
on Trial."
Lamb,
Zawada and Mary Burton Riseley were arrested on November 18 at Fort
Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School,
during a protest of military use of torture against war detainees.
Magistrate
Hector Estrada was concerned by evidence that both Lamb and Zawada
had failed to heed an order of the court in cases pending in other
jurisdictions. Betsy Lamb is awaiting trial for a September anti-war
protest outside the office of Rep. Greg Walden, in Bend, Oregon.
As
a standard condition of release on her own recognizance, Lamb had
promised not to commit any other crime while awaiting trial. Fr.
Zawada has an outstanding bench warrant for failure to appear for
a court date in Washington, D.C., where he has been arrested several
times in recent years for anti-war protest.
Army
Prosecutor Capt. Evan Seamone came to court with three witnesses
in dress uniform, several poster-sized photo enlargements and a
videotape of the arrests. But the magistrate said he already knew
the defendants' intent, and would only listen to Seamone's summation.
Seamone
described the defendants' peaceful passage through police barricades
at the gate of Fort Huachuca as a violent act because it had to
be met by police, who were forced to go face to face with the unarmed
protesters and lift them from a kneeling position. In the eyes of
the law and legal precedent, Seamone argued that such violent trespass
warranted pretrial detention for the safety of the community.
Were
the court to release Zawada and Lamb, "their blatant defiance
is likely to happen again" Seamone warned, gravely predicting
that "all kinds of chaos" would ensue at the gate to Fort
Huachuca.
Attorney
Rachel Wilson, representing the defendants, objected repeatedly
without success to Seamone's arguments. Wilson told the court that
Ms. Lamb had "learned her lesson" and was willing to post
bond along with her promise to return to court for trial. Estrada
was unmoved.
He
told the defendants he didn't trust them and that he believed they
were right where they wanted to be - before him in chains. Protest
is brinkmanship, and the point is to not be arrested; better to
organize a conference or seminar, he chided.
Estrada
then ordered that Lamb and Zawada be kept in custody until their
February 4 trial because they "remain a flight risk, and are
a danger to the community." Not even Capt. Seamone had suggested
that the defendants were a "flight risk".
Responding
to the court's conclusion, Felice Cohen-Joppa said of her friends,
"Betsy Lamb and Jerry Zawada are not a danger to the community
- they, along with Mary Burton Riseley, are the conscience of the
community. They are shining a light on the involvement of military
intelligence in torture around the world. Their nonviolent acts
are no more a danger to the community than were the nonviolent acts
of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr." Lamb and Zawada
are not the only people now in prison for peaceful protest of U.S.
torture practices.
On
October 17, Magistrate Estrada sent Frs. Steve Kelly and Louie Vitale
to prison for five months in prison for a similar protest at Fort
Huachuca in November, 2006. They are scheduled to be released in
mid-March.
Brenda
Norrell can be reached at: brendanorrell@gmail.com
More:
www.tortureontrial.org/
Please
see photo of construction of the border fence on Tohono O'odham
land: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Although
the Tohono O'odham Nation refers to this as a "vehicle barrier"
instead of a "border wall," traditional O'odham say it
has the same effect, since it is a barrier to the annual ceremonial
route and has already resulted in the digging up of O'odham ancestors'
remains. While the Tohono O'odham Nation government works with Homeland
Security and supports the border fence, the traditional O'odham
are opposing it. Traditional O'odham said the future of their people
and their ceremonial way of life is at stake.
|